


Hold Your Hand

by zcinmalik



Category: Being Human (US/Canada)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Asexual Josh Levison, Bisexual Nora Sergeant, Bisexual Sally Malik, F/M, Fluff, Minor Aidan Waite/Nora Sergeant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-03-06 19:49:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3146480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zcinmalik/pseuds/zcinmalik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The last time Sally’s eyes lit up like they did a second ago involved a biology major named Zoe. Nice enough woman, Zoe, except for when she sat Sally down and gently told her that she had come to realize she was in love with her roommate Nick.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hold Your Hand

**Author's Note:**

> Written for BHUS Appreciation Week! Josh/Sally remains one of my all-time favorite ships so I had to write something silly and fluffy for them.

When Sally drops into the seat across from him, it takes Aidan a split second to recognize the look in her eyes before he says, “Sally, _no_.”

The coffee shop is packed. Winter break is over and all of the college students are back to school, stumbling past each other and clutching at their cups miserably. It makes this shop a hellhole to try to get any work done in, but Sally has been refusing to go to any other place as of a good month or so ago. Now Aidan finally realizes why.

“You haven’t even let me-”

“ _No_ , Sally. No way.”

The last time Sally’s eyes lit up like they did a second ago involved a biology major named Zoe. Nice enough woman, Zoe, except for when she sat Sally down and gently told her that she had come to realize she was in love with her roommate Nick. Sally had been devastated, in the way that only someone painfully optimistic and consistently unlucky in love can be. And Aidan was there for her, of course he was, because that’s what friends are for. But Aidan is not looking forward anytime soon to a repeat of the 47 consecutive viewings of _Moulin Rouge_ and 62 pints of cookie dough ice cream that followed the Zoe breakup. 

Right now, Sally’s eyes widen in dramatic indignation. “Then I guess I won’t tell you that his best friend is Nora Sergeant.”

“Yeah, right.” Aidan takes a pointedly disinterested bite out of his muffin. Nora is a pre-med in his SOC 351 class. He deeply regrets having talked about her hair for half an hour to a giggly Sally when they got drunk last weekend.

“It’s true,” she insists, leaning forward over the table. “If you don’t believe me, look in the kitchen.”

Aidan glares at her for a good few seconds before succumbing and glancing over her shoulder. Behind the counter, currently shaking a can of whipped cream with a bizarrely serious look of concentration on his face, is the guy who must have gotten Sally’s attention. He’s completely her type, too, with the soft Bambi eyes and expressive, quirking lips.

“And a beanie, Sally, really?” Aidan can’t help but raise an eyebrow and glance back at her. She huffs.

“He’s a sensitive soul, and that’s not the point. Look behind him.”

Aidan follows her instructions and finally notices the entrance to the kitchen, behind and to the left of Beanie Guy. Sure enough, there’s Nora Sergeant, her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail and her mouth turned down in a frown as she pulls a tray of pastries out of an oven.

Sally has turned in her seat to follow Aidan’s gaze. “She’s like the worst cook in the world, but she needs the extra cash because she’s saving for a trip to Maui after graduation.”

Aidan tears his eyes away from the vision of Nora currently wiping sweat from the back of her neck. “Wait a minute, how do you know all this?”

Sally gives him an innocent look. “I didn’t tell you? She’s bi too, we’re in Spectrum together.” Suddenly her eyes go hazy like they used to whenever she talked about Zoe’s hilarious dry humor or what Zoe thought of the movie they saw last night. “And sometimes Josh comes to the meetings and he brings these adorable little cupcakes that he bakes that are little asexual flags because he just recently came out. He’s always talking about how he's realized that all he wants from a romantic partner is cuddling and hand-holding. And I just sit there trying not to scream the whole time because _I_ want to cuddle him and hold his hand, me, right here, I volunteer as tribute.”

At this, Aidan can no longer contain himself and snorts loudly. Sally slaps his arm. 

“Aidan, you’ve got to help me, _please_ be my wingman.” With this she clasps her hands together and widens her eyes.

Aidan runs a hand down his face and sighs. “What do you need me to do?”

Sally does a little dance in her seat. “Okay, go over there and talk me up. Just be like-" Sally puts on a terrible impersonation of Aidan's voice- "‘Man, my BFF Sally is the shit, like she’s _so_ smart and funny.’ And drop in there that my favorite band is One Direction and that I definitely didn’t steal his iPod to find out what his favorite band is. And also that I think it’s really cute that even though he dresses like a hipster he’s not like one of those vaguely misogynistic hipster dudes who pretends to hate One Direction. Got it?”

Aidan pulls himself out of his seat. “You owe me.”

“I know, I know.” She watches him stand, grinning brightly, and claps her hands a little bit. “Th- _ank_ you, _Ai_ -dan.”

Aidan snorts again and makes his way to the front of the store. It’s cleared out a little bit now that the 10:30 crowd has left for their classes, and Josh is wetting a towel to wipe the counter off. He looks up once Aidan comes to an awkward stop in front of him. 

“Hey. What can I get for you?”

Aidan glances behind him at Sally, still sitting at their table. She’s openly staring at them, and shoos his gaze away quickly with a few waves of her hands. Aidan sighs and turns back.

“Hey, man. Do you know my friend Sally? Sitting back there?”

Josh looks over Aidan’s shoulder for a second. “Yeah, Nora’s friend from Spectrum.”

“Yeah,” Aidan says. A long, uncomfortable pause ensues. This is ridiculous. Trying to convince himself that he isn’t in a bad teenage rom-com clearly isn’t working. Might as well lean into it. “Listen, Josh. Sally... likes you. She likes that you bake cute cupcakes and that you like One Direction and she wants to cuddle with you and hold your hand and the whole works. But she’s got kind of low self-esteem and thinks that she needs me to wingman for her and talk her up. Which I’m pretty terrible at doing, and if you don’t already know how great she is then you probably don’t deserve to date her. No offense. So. There it is.”

Josh is wide-eyed. The towel he’s clutching has started to drip a large puddle of soapy water onto the counter. He’s staring at Sally over Aidan’s shoulder.

“Are you kidding?” Josh finally asks, tearing his gaze away from her and back to Aidan. Aidan feels his stomach drop. It had been a gamble to do it this way, and if he’s just been single handedly responsible for ruining Sally’s chances with this guy he doesn’t know if there are enough Baz Luhrmann films in the world to assuage the guilt. “I mean, like… are you serious? You’re really saying she was nervous to ask me out so she sent you here to… talk her up?”

Aidan brings his hands up to cover his face and sighs. “Oh man. No, it’s not her fault, I-”

“That,” Josh says, and Aidan can hear the grin in his voice. He looks up sharply. Josh is beaming over his shoulder in Sally’s direction again. “Is the single cutest thing that has ever happened to me in my life. Thanks, man, I’m gonna go over there for just a sec.”

And, as Aidan watches in relieved astonishment, Josh drops his towel onto the counter and hops over it. By the time he makes it over to the table where Sally’s sitting, Aidan can’t make out what they’re saying, but it’s clear by the way Sally scrambles for her phone that Josh has just offered to give her his number.

“That was impressive.”

Aidan jumps a little and turns to see Nora leaning against the doorframe of the kitchen entrance, her arms crossed. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, that was _terrible_ and you are the _worst_ wingman ever. But still. Color me impressed.” She winks.

* * *

“Ugh, god, they’re so sickly sweet.” Nora steals a handful of popcorn from the bowl in Aidan’s lap. She promptly throws it at the couch where Sally is absently petting Josh’s hair and cuddling him from behind. 

Without taking his eyes away from the movie, Josh picks a kernel off of his lap and offers it over his shoulder to Sally. She eats it out of his hand and coos, “Aww, thanks babe.”

Nora groans. “That’s it, I mean it this time, you’re both uninvited to Maui.”

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](http://gentlethomas.tumblr.com/)


End file.
